I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for managing information designated for transmission over a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services; for instance, voice, video, packet data, broadcast, and messaging services can be provided via such wireless communication systems. These systems can be multiple-access systems that are capable of supporting communication for multiple terminals by sharing available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals. In such a system, each terminal can communicate with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. This communication link can be established via a single-in-single-out (SISO), multiple-in-signal-out (MISO), or a multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.
A wireless communication system can be configured with various quality of service (QoS) requirements to ensure the quality of signals communicated between devices in the system. For example, a communication system can associate a delay requirement with a data packet flow that can, for example, ensure that a packet is transmitted within a predetermined time after the packet is buffered for transmission.
Conventionally, in order to satisfy a QoS delay requirement for a data packet flow, a packet from the flow can be discarded at the transmitter when it cannot be delivered to the receiver within the associated delay requirement. However, because packets generally arrive at the transmitter in sequence from upper layers, when the delay bound of an oldest packet is reached due to transmitter congestion and/or other factors, the delay bounds of consecutive subsequent packets can similarly be reached at approximately the same time. This can result in the discarding of multiple consecutive packets, which can in turn result in a reduction in performance for some higher layer applications. Accordingly, it would be desirable to implement transmission management techniques that mitigate at least the above shortcomings.